Learned an interesting new term. Apparently, the Chinese have a term called ‘moral kidnapping’, which is when you convince someone to do or accept something wrong by telling them, essentially, that if they don’t do or accept said wrong thing then they’ll actually be hurting someone or contributing to a greater problem.
For example:
Person A: “I don’t think I should do this / accept what this person is doing, it feels wrong.”
Person B: “If you don’t, you’re a bad person, everybody else is OKAY with / doing it.”
This is considered to be one of the worst things you can do, because it more often than not targets good people who become convinced that if they don’t do or accept that wrong thing, then they’ll actually be hurting a great moral cause.
Another example, for fun:
Person A: “I don’t agree with this other person’s politics / opinion on something, but I don’t think it’s right to harass or hurt them.”
Person B: “If you don’t actively participate in resistance then you’re on their side, you’re helping them, you’re a bad person on the wrong side of history. Now do the right thing and leak their address on the internet- for justice.”